Part 114: Famicom Part 3 - Just because he aren't sick doesn't mean he are well.

I'm less and less sure what to make of this game. On one hand, it's clearly a cash grab on an easily recognizable brand (released just after Advent Children), but the accuracy with which it holds to the original script is impressive. One would think if these people just wanted to make money, they could take some other unrelated game and slap Cloud and Sephiroth sprites in. The fact that they went through the entire script makes me wonder how much love the programmers had for the original game. But then again, the things that are missing, that would be so easy to code for, give the opposite impression. I don't know what to believe about this game anymore.


The low damage that the characters are doing only seems to be a problem very early on in the game, as I'll be showing.


Let's Play Final Fantasy 7, Famicom Edition

Part 3: Just because he aren't sick doesn't mean he are well.



Cloud makes his dynamic entrance into (onto) the game's love story. Just reading through the dialogue, seeing how dry it feels with these two motionless sprites, really makes you appreciate how the little touches of body language, or music, in FF7 make a great deal of difference.



Reno is only identifiable as a villian in FF7F because he orders these soldiers to attack Aeris. It all seems very dry. Most characters' dialogue don't seem to convey as much of their personality as their body language did, with the possible exception of Barrett, who's just over-the-top enough to keep his personality intact.



Reno is also a villian because he dances poorly.





The region around the Sector 6 slums is possibly the first place I've encountered in the game that actually passes for slums. Sure you've got the green grass outside those walls, but something looks scruffy and beat up. I wonder why they didn't put those tiles in the villages to make them look more slummy?



And a return to greenery and flowers. Sector 6 is much like Sector 7, although there's a tucked away spot in the upper-right hand corner where you can pick up stat-boosting items. This brings us to perhaps the greatest tragedy of this Mini-LP: there is no guy who are sick. No NPCs are floating around this Sector, which is again, very confusing. There are NPCs walking the streets of towns later in the game, so why did they have to rob the player of this bit of Engrish? It feels very lonely here.





Interestingly enough, Aeris' mother blocks the way up the stairs while she's talking to you. You need to leave the house, come back in, and she'll be in a different spot. Then you can go upstairs, sleep, and then sneak out. If you try to go to the Wall Market without Aeris, Cloud says that he "Better get Aeris" and refuses to go any further.



I can believe that.



This set of pillars constitutes the playground from the original game. There Aeris and Cloud talk about their feelings, old boyfriends, etc, until Tifa comes through the gate dressed like a prostitute.



I wonder why Aeris doesn't press this matter any further with Cloud. He said Tifa wasn't his girlfriend, but that still leaves some unsavory posibilities.





The Wall Market does look like more of a town than the Slums do, but there's sadly very little to do. All those buildings without signs are just decoration, you can't go inside them. As far as I can tell, there isn't actually any way to go inside the gentleman's club. I'll have to look into it a little bit more later.



A very logical suggestion.







The whole process is streamlined from the original version. The only task that has to be completed in FF7F is finding the dressmaker in the bar, after his daughter tells you that he's out. Cloud becomes a pretty, ponytailed girl. It's nice to see that they created a unique sprite for girl-Cloud, rather than a recolor of another character. Sure it's a minor adjustment, but it demonstrates...something.



And an adorable ponytail.





Cloud's got the idea. Don Corneo's mansion also has a useless room on the right-hand side, with nothing to do and nobody to talk to. Makes me wonder.



Because there's no variation in the dress, Tifa gets selected by the Don.



The gig, however, is soon up.



Aeris has the idea. So the team uncovers the Shinra plan to destroy the Sector 7 support pillar, thereby killing, presumably, 1/7 of the total population of Midgar. So you see, these are the villians.





Speaking of villians, we meet the remainder of President Shinra's advisors. Heidegger looks deliciously evil, like a cinematic psychopath that I can't quite put my finger on. Reeve seems to have the same level of incredulity as Cloud's world sprite. I'm not sure I can grant that to him, in light of what we find out about him later.



Don Corneo drops us into the sewer. There are a few goodies floating about, but nothing particularly special. I haven't picked up a single weapon or piece of armor from a chest, yet. All the weapon upgrades have come from enemy drops. I don't know if this is intentional or not.



Just wanted to include this to demonstrate that things are getting better as far as damage goes. Level 2 spells seem to do around 50 damage, doubled for weaknesses, halved for resistances, and doubled again for critical hits. A party at this stage in the game can deal, with a bit of luck, about 150 damage per round, much improved from 4...4...4...8...miss...4...



The train graveyard is a graveyard, that contains trains. No puzzles with shifting the trains, or finding the one damn spot that you can climb up on top of them. It's very short, though. Just a hop, skip, and a jump back to Sector 7.







The tower is under the control of the Shinra, who've planted a bomb at the top of the pillar. None of the NPCs about town seem concerned at all. Wedge falls from the pillar, down onto the ground. Biggs and Jessie are encountered on the way up.



Cloud, Tifa, and Barrett look on as the world's smallest airship glides by.









Apparently, three people can fit in that dinky little thing, and Reno himself is a riverdancing Samurai giant.



Everything goes wrong.



See what I mean about Barrett's dialogue being enough to carry his character?



A tearful, itchy, bristly reunion.



Returning to the Wall Market (the Gentleman's club is still unavailable), the gentleman in the weapon shop offers to sell us a battery. Interestingly enough, we can return to the Don's mansion, and find it completely deserted. Nobody's guarding the place. But Cloud's right, why do we need a battery to climb up to the plate?





Oh.

Next Time: Are there stairs in your building?